


Let Me In (On A Secret)

by Kill3rWhal3D1ck



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Bodyswap, Fire Powers, M/M, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 13:48:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16176344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kill3rWhal3D1ck/pseuds/Kill3rWhal3D1ck
Summary: Do Kyungsoo doesn't regret the choices he's made in life to keep his fire powers in check. (But he'll admit that it gets a little lonely sometimes.)Park Chanyeol's spirit has never been good at staying in his own body. (But it's never been a problem.) Until a reserved, charming and very mysterious colleague catches his attention and he wishes they could meet while Chanyeol was a human and not like. His pet dog.





	Let Me In (On A Secret)

**Author's Note:**

> My first EXO fic! Hope you enjoy it! Follow me on @nongcubines on Twitter! <3

Do Kyungsoo was the only passenger on the bus making its way back to the dorm. Not that he felt any rush to return, to be honest. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon. The sky was a soft blue streaked with soft white clouds. It was a touch too warm but Kyungsoo never minded the heat. The bus made a turn and approached a park Kyungsoo had always admired but never had the time to actually visit. When night fell, only the park’s lamplights could be seen such that, if you squinted, passing by the many pinpricks of light felt like travelling through a sea of stars. In the day time though it was a regular park with meandering paths and lively families. 

 

Kyungsoo thanked the bus captain as he alighted the bus. 

 

Quite amazing how the places you live close to are often places you never end up visiting. Not due to lack of interest, but the illusion that proximity will increase the likelihood of eventually visiting “one day”. Today was finally the day. There was nothing spectacular about the park. No great feats of horticulture or fancy water features. Kyungsoo appreciated the simplicity though. He strolled slowly through the park, letting his gaze flit freely from the overlapping leaves overhead to the messages carved into the benches lining the path to the couple Insta-Storying their date. He decided not to listen to music just yet and enjoy the sounds around him. How he wished he had more time for silent walks like these. An inviting bench caught his eye and it seemed a good place as any to pause. The bench overlooked a wide field and a few great trees in the distance. 

 

Open spaces were important to Kyungsoo. 

 

He settled down and pulled out his newest colouring book from his bag along with a case of colour pencils. He had initially scoffed at the adult colouring book trend but was quickly sucked into this bright, therapeutic occupation. Presently, he was a proud owner of a small stack of completed colouring books. He crossed his legs, made himself comfortable and set to work.

 

* * *

Calm was important to Kyungsoo. 

 

Extremes of emotion were dangerous in ways that were very different for Kyungsoo than for others. It would start as a heat in his fingertips that would erupt into flame should Kyungsoo experience intense happiness, anger, sadness. Intensity of feeling of any kind would summon this phenomenon. He first manifested this in middle school. The sheer excitement of getting accepted as a trainee for an entertainment company quickly dissolved into horror as the acceptance letter in his hands singed and subsequently caught fire. At the time, he was alone at home and thank goodness for that. He ran to the toilet screeching to douse his hands under cold running water. When the fire was extinguished, Kyungsoo marvelled through tear-filled eyes at how his fingers were completely unscathed. Kyungsoo remembered having a hard time explaining to the company’s receptionist why half his acceptance letter was burnt off.

 

He never told anyone. 

 

Who knew how this anomaly would affect his place at the company? How would his parents feel about having such a dangerous son? Kyungsoo had decided at the ripe old age of 14 to swear himself to a life of secrecy. 

 

Rather than fill him with excitement, this new ability filled him with worry. He paid careful attention to what would bring that unusual heat to his finger tips and avoided all triggers. He would soon discover that he could control it by regulating his emotions. This caused Kyungsoo to develop a strong interest in calming techniques very early in life. He was proficient in various forms of meditation, found solace in the messages of Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, had an entire shelf dedicated to his aromatherapy collection, followed an extensive range of playlists for calming music on Spotify and, more recently, took up colouring. Kyungsoo was not an excitable young man like so many of his peers in the company. He had comfortably grown into a reserved and level-headed demeanour, which in turn guaranteed his safety (and the safety of his important hardcopy documents). 

 

Unfortunately, safety came at a price.

 

The K-pop industry favoured a certain extraverted personality and Kyungsoo's introverted nature was anathema to that. He received consistent “constructive criticism” about this from his seniors and overheard whispers among his peers calling him “scary like Satan himself" and "not fit for idol life". In his early years at the company, hearing these comments would result in Kyungsoo taking a quick trip to the bathroom to cry as silently as he could manage. He eventually grew to ignore most of it though. Kyungsoo decided that he would rather them see him as a frightful devil than a flaming freak.

* * *

Kyungoo's recollection of days past was interrupted by a rustling of bushes next to him. A black dog emerged from the bushes. Kyungsoo let out a small gasp. He loved dogs. He set down his colouring and slowly approached it.

 

“Why hello there! Hello! What’s your name?”

 

The dog seemed startled initially but made no move to scamper away. He stroked the dog’s soft fur tentatively and it sat. What a well-behaved boy! He passed the next few minutes like this, cooing softly while stroking the dog. It looked to be a kind of poodle.

 

“Do you wanna see what I’m doing? Come! Come here.” Kyungsoo didn’t expect the dog to actually follow him over to the bench and was delighted when it did.

 

“Aren’t you good? I like you so much! See! I’m colouring a magical city on a giant whale. Do you like it?”

 

It barked in agreement. Kyungsoo felt strangely validated and laughed. How he wished he could take this dog back to the dorm.

* * *

Park Chanyeol talked a great deal in his sleep. It had been that way since middle school. Whether it was a nap or a night’s rest, he would be sleep-talking, often quite clearly. The dreams would always be the same: in his sleep he inhabited the body of his pet dog, Toben. 

 

Though it wouldn’t be accurate to say they were _just_  dreams. 

 

Chanyeol first discovered the reality of his dreams when he knocked over his mother’s potted herbs as his dream dog self and awoke to the pot in actual pieces on the porch just like in his dream. Several similar experiments between dream dog Chanyeol and human Chanyeol led him to the undeniable conclusion that he really did enter Toben's body in his sleep. When he first came to terms with this bizarre development, Chanyeol was thrilled. Didn’t every child dream of having extraordinary abilities? Like in X-men or Harry Potter. In the movies, secrecy always followed the discovery of a new power. There would doubtless be evil people who would try to exploit his ability and hunt him down should he make it known. It was for that reason that young Chanyeol kept his ability to himself. As he grew up though, it was the incredible nature of the ability that discouraged him from sharing his secret. Even if he wanted to disclose it, no one would believe him. Friends would be familiar with Chanyeol describing Toben as “part of him.” To what extent, they would never know.

 

As an adult, spirit transference came to be of great utility. He could see his parents everyday as his dog self though his human self lived far away in a dorm on the other side of Seoul. Through his 4 years as a trainee, he was rarely homesick. Which was not to say that those trainee days were in any way easy. He was too often wrecked with worry that his musical career would never be realised and became haunted by the hopelessness these thoughts induced. He hated thinking of those days. XOXO had just passed their 60-day anniversary. Debut used to be a distant dream and now he was living it. Some days Chanyeol could hardly believe it himself. It was in this jubilant mood that he was wandering as his dog self. He spent a lot of time in Toben's body napping too but today was too lovely of a Sunday afternoon to pass up a walk. His parents were out with friends so they wouldn’t realise that Toben was missing from the house for a few hours. Since his boyhood days Chanyeol had a way of sneaking out of the house as his dog self. A panel in the fence surrounding his house was loose and a push in the right place would cause it to give way just enough for his four-legged form to slip out. As a boy he had also managed to convince his parents not to put a collar on Toben. It felt so uncomfortable. His parents had initially protested. What if Toben goes missing, they tried to reason. Chanyeol had insisted that if Toben ever went missing, he would find him. Finally they relented. It was always a point of amazement that their son was true to his word. In the time that they’ve owned him, Toben had went missing twice and both times Chanyeol mysteriously found him within the day.

 

Wandering the city as a dog was always so much easier than doing so as a human. Most people liked dogs. There were no social hoops to leap through in order to win over someone new. No social niceties to navigate before someone felt comfortable in his presence. Chanyeol loved the simplicity of interaction as a good-natured stray. He was chasing a butterfly into a bush when a gasp caused him to stop. He turned to see COUNTDOWN’s Do Kyungsoo staring at him from a park bench. Before Chanyeol could react, he was approaching him. 

 

What a surprise! XOXO and COUNTDOWN were both boy groups under the same entertainment company. Channel knew Kyungsoo in passing but remembered him most clearly from the joint interview both their groups did for Kiss The Radio. It was one of XOXO's first radio interviews after debut and they were quite nervous. He was grateful to COUNTDOWN for their friendliness and generous laughter during the interview. It definitely helped put XOXO at ease. He had enjoyed himself more than expected. 

 

Kyungsoo was stroking his fur and speaking in high tones as people are wont to do with dogs. His hands felt nice and warm against Chanyeol's fur. It was always odd to meet someone his human self knew in real life this way. Without a collar, Kyungsoo probably thought him a random stray. Which was quite fine. Kyungsoo was markedly more relaxed now than when Chanyeol usually saw him at events or in between performances. There was so much sincerity in his smile. Kyungsoo proceeded to show him what he'd be doing. Colouring! He had chosen and blended the colours well.

 

“It looks good!” Chanyeol remarked. He knew his praise would just come out as a bark but it seemed to please Kyungsoo.

 

He passed the rest of the afternoon in the park, returning occasionally to nap nearby Kyungsoo's bench. After their initial run-in, Chanyeol could have chosen to leave. There were plenty of perfectly good parks in Seoul after all, some even better than the one he found himself in. But there was something about Kyungsoo that drew Chanyeol in. Perhaps it was the soft angles of his handsome face or the beautiful tuneless tunes that would occasionally slip past his lips as he coloured. In any case, Chanyeol stayed. The chestnut-haired man spoke little but the silence was comfortable. Eventually though, Kyungsoo stood and packed his things. 

 

“Thanks for keeping me company,” he whispered, while stroking Chanyeol's head. “Maybe I can come again next week if I’m free?” Kyungsoo chuckled then, shaking his head, as if embarrassed for talking to Chanyeol as if he understood him.

 

Chanyeol thanked him too. It came out as a few short barks. Chanyeol found himself wishing dearly that it was his human self that found Kyungsoo in the park and not his dog self. At least his human self could speak in coherent sentences. Usually. If he wasn’t too self-conscious.

 

Scratch that. It probably made no difference if Chanyeol was with Kyungsoo as a dog or man. Those beautiful eyes would steal any words right out his mouth anyway.

 

Kyungsoo gave him one last smile, one last pat on his head, and left.

* * *

By the time human Chanyeol awoke from his long afternoon nap it was already evening. He buried his face in his pillow before turning over and stretching his arms over his head. He had met Kyungsoo today, _really_ met Kyungsoo, and he was so wonderful. 

 

While getting dressed to grab some dinner he remembered the acrostic poems he exchanged with Kyungsoo as part of a game on the Kiss The Radio interview.

 

“How (would you feel about) a boyfriend?” Chanyeol had asked, shooting Kyungsoo an exaggerated wink.

 

“A boyfriend would be nice,” Kyungsoo replied, an amused smirk of a smile playing on his lips.


End file.
